Multinational Corporations: Pros And Cons Of MNCs In Bangladesh

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Multinational corporations
Background
Bangladesh is a country in the Asia/ Pacific region, and even as the country has made great strides in the past decades. It is still a low income country. The major multinationals include companies like British American Tobacco, Unilever Bangladesh Ltd as well as Fisons Ltd. As a former British colony and proximity to India the MNCs that are in the country also operate in India. Even as the MNCs transfer technology they may wield political influence and fail to address poor working conditions when operating in areas with lax regulations.
Pros and cons of MNCs in Bangladesh
The MNCs help Bangladesh to develop the manufacturing industry and expand in various sectors. Bangladesh is one of least cost manufacturers in the Asia Pacific region and the presence of multinationals has allowed many people to be employed and this increases the standard of living compared to having no jobs. The MNCs mostly invested in Bangladesh over time increasing foreign direct investments and the major foreign currencies. The low costs also translate to low prices and these benefits the host country consumers who buy cheap products. Moumita and Zaman (77) looked into the benefits of global training in Bangladesh for Unilever, highlighting that trainees were able to gain best practices applicable in different areas of operations and improved performance.
Despite the MNCs employing people they also drive away the small businesses and indigenous owned firms. The multinationals wield huge financial resources that they can lower prices and still remain competitive because of the large scale of operations and ability to rely on the supply chain to get the cheapest goods and services. The huge profits that multinationals get go to the parent company, and only a small percentage is reinvested. Increasingly, the Bangladeshi government now allows local investors to be owners of foreign firms as the officials require the corporations to be publicly listed (Khan). Among the garment factories that are suppliers to major athletic and apparel labels, there are contracts to supply the major multinationals even in cases where the said companies ignore safety and labor laws. The problem of poor safety and pay in some of the sweatshirt factories, means that some MNCs profit form worker exploitation (Jopson, Allchin and Kazmin).
Pros and the cons of MNCs in the Global North
For the home countries in the Global North, profit repatriation is one of the incentives to invest in other countries. For instance, in the case of Unilever, the London, UK home office takes a share of the profits, and the domestic country also taxes the incoming revenue from multinationals earned in foreign countries. The home country organizations also use the repatriated profits for reinvestments. There is money invested in different projects to support sustainability in...